Book Marketing Blogs

Welcome to Author Marketing Experts’ Blog Carnival. We thank this week’s contributors for their pieces on writing, getting published, book marketing, self-publishing, and social media.

Self-Publishing

Hazel Longuet submitted 20 Writing Tips: This Week’s Most Popular Articles On Writing posted at Novel Experience, saying, “Every Monday I do a round-up of the previous week’s top 20 articles on writing, self-publishing and book promotion as buzzed up by the actions of my 7k social media followers – comprising of primarily published and aspiring authors. So here are this week’s top 20…..”

That concludes this week’s carnival. Our weekly roundup offers the best book marketing, self-publishing, writing, and general publishing industry tips to guide authors, would-be authors, publishers and others on their book journey. Submit a post to our weekly carnival by using this link: http://www.amarketingexpert.com/submit-ame-blog-carnival/

Get some ideas and inspiration from these book marketing and publishing industry tweets, courtesy of bloggers, marketers, authors and others. The topics include whether social media is worth a writer’s time, how to use Thunderclap to promote your book, a guide to advertising on Amazon, and more. Happy marketing!

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* How to Win Sales And Influence Amazon’s Algorithms

A great discussion between two authors who have found creative ways to share their audiences and boost their sales:

If you’ve ever had a review yanked off of Amazon you know how frustrating that can be. I’ve spoken to some authors who lost one and others who lost dozens. Each time it’s assumed that Amazon is the devil and that they get a certain amount of enjoyment just randomly pulling reviews. While I was pretty certain this wasn’t true, I decided to call Amazon Author Central and get to the bottom of this.

The rep there was super helpful and very clear about their guidelines. Let’s look at a few:

Friends and family: Amazon considers friends and family to be biased reviews, and, if they can make a connection, they will pull these. This means that while it’s great to encourage friends to review your book if a connection can be made Amazon will pull the review. While you may find this unfair, I do get Amazon’s stance on this. They want reviews that are authentic. We all do. Sometimes well-meaning friends and family will post glowing five-star reviews that just say: I loved this book! Without a detailed explanation as to why. Glad they loved it, but let’s build out this review so it’s not just one or two nondescript sentences. This also isn’t helpful to future readers who may be considering your book *and* while none of us likes 2-star reviews, keep in mind that a book page with all 5-star reviews is regarded as suspect. So there’s nothing wrong with asking these folks to review your book, just know that Amazon may pull the review if they deem it biased.

IP Addresses: This is another place where you need to really be careful. If you have all of your work friends review the book from the same IP address Amazon will pull all of those reviews. This happened to an author I spoke with recently. She lost over forty reviews because of this. It’s fine to encourage work associates to review the book, but not a good idea to strong arm them into reviewing the book on company time or from the same IP address.

Sketchy/Questionable Reviews: As I mentioned earlier, sketchy reviews will always draw attention. And I’m not talking about reviews that are well-written, but reviews that don’t offer some level of detail. Reviews lacking details are often called into question, or at the very least, looked into by Amazon.

Algorithm Changes: As we all know, Amazon switches up the algorithms on their site quite frequently. Because of this, some reviews may vanish for a while only to return later. If you see reviews missing hold off a day or two before calling Amazon to see what happened.

Gift Cards: Here’s another interesting thing I noticed, and let me preface this by saying that Amazon did not confirm this point, it’s just something that I’ve discovered on my own. If you issue an e-gift card to someone and they turn around and buy your book and then review it, Amazon could pull the review. Why? Since this all came from my research I can’t be 100% sure why but I suspect it’s because Amazon may view a gift card as a bribe, especially if the gift card exceeds the cost of the book by a lot. This is one reason why in late 2014 I switched to straight gift cards that you buy at Staples or wherever. We use gift cards a lot for our authors. Gifts for bloggers to give to their readers, raffle prizes, etc. I used to issue them all via Amazon until I happened to stumble on this. Gifting an eBook, however, is very different. I do this all the time for folks who want to review my books on Kindle. I will gift them the eBook with a note thanking them for the read or the possible review or whatever.

What to do if a review gets pulled? Call Author Central and ask them for help solving this. Be polite, not frantic and panicked, and explain that you think reviews are missing. In cases with books I’ve been monitoring, I take screenshots of the reviews every few days or so. Not because I’m being paranoid about reviews getting pulled, but to keep track of the review progress for any particular title. Reviews often move around on the page depending on how many folks find them “helpful” so that’s good to watch, too. In one particular case, I had noticed a review went missing for a title I was working on, and because I had a record I could easily go back to Amazon and ask them what was going on. In this case it was because of the algorithms and the review popped back onto the book page within a day or two.

Having Amazon pull a review does not have to mean that the review is gone for good, sometimes it’s something that’s easily fixed. If Amazon won’t reinstate it, find out why so you can be sure it never happens again. Monitoring the review policy is important and sadly it’s not an exact science. Some of their assessments aren’t always fair, I agree. But having a book on Amazon and adhering to their terms of service is the world we live in.

Welcome to Tip #41 of our 52 Ways to Market Your Book! I hope you’re enjoying these tips and they are helping you sell more books. So, ready? Here we go!

Why (some) Authors Fail

Sorry for the buzz kill title of this article, but instead of spreading pixie dust as many marketing articles do, I thought I’d take a hard look at the realities of self-defeating behavior and some of the things authors might buy into that will sabotage their careers. Over the years I’ve written a lot of articles on how to be successful, but to be successful you must first learn how to fail up, meaning that you learn from what you did wrong, take full responsibility for it and move on. Lessons in publishing are often costly, both in time and dollars. I don’t presume to tell you that you should avoid making any mistakes, but many of them are avoidable. Here are a few for you to consider.

Not learning enough about the industry

The first piece of this is simple: get to know the market you are in. This is a bit of a dual message because I’m not just speaking of the market you are promoting to: your area of expertise, but also to the publishing industry at large. Who else is publishing in this area? What are they publishing? Is your area of writing hot or a fading trend? These are all good things to know before you jump headlong into your area. Getting to know your market can help you not only avoid expensive errors but also possibly incorporate trends into your book that could help to leverage its success. How to learn about the industry? Read up on it at sites like Publishersmarketplace.com; subscribe to the free or paid newsletter the site offers. This will give you a good sense of what’s selling, who’s buying, what’s being published. Publishers Weekly is another good resource. If you can’t afford a subscription try their online site at publishersweekly.com, or check out your local library to see if they carry any copies. This is a great industry resource.

Not Accepting Feedback

A couple of weeks ago an author who has sat in on a number of my classes, both online and off, asked me numerous times how she could get onto Huffington Post as a blogger. I told her I would try to pursue a Huffpo blogger for her to get feedback on her work. I did this as a favor because, well, she was relentless in her pursuit of this and I had to admire that. So, I finally got a blogger to review her work and the critique came back not so good. In fact it was terrible. I sat on it for a day, wondering if I should share it with her. I finally decided that if she was so relentless about her career, she would be equally relentless about crafting a perfect message, right? Not so much, actually. When I forwarded her the feedback she shot me off an email saying that many other people loved it and that astrologically this was a terrible time to accept feedback so she would dismiss it. Some moon phase or something. I honestly can’t recall. No, I’m not making this up. OK, listen, full confession time here. I have a friend who calls me whenever Mercury is retrograde, “don’t buy anything electronic” she says, and I listen. Well, sometimes. Anyway, point being that I get that we’re all driven by a different drummer, but if someone takes the time to critique your work why would you not try to learn from that? Look, I know not everyone is going to be spot-on with their feedback, but take from it what you can and move on – better yourself, better your writing.

Feedback is a crucial part to any writer’s career. If someone who is more knowledgeable than you about the industry you are in is willing to give you feedback you should listen. Really. In a room of one hundred authors I can pick out the successful ones. You know who they are? They are the ones who aren’t so wrapped up in their egos that they aren’t willing to listen and learn.

Not Surrounding Yourself with Enough Professionals

Let’s face it, your mother and immediate family will love anything you write. These are not the people who will offer you the kind of guidance that will further your career. Yes, they will (and should) love and support you through this work, but you need professionals you trust by your side giving you advice, wisdom, and direction. You don’t need to keep a group of experts on retainer, but you need to know who they are so you can call on them when you need help.

Not Doing Their Research

What would you think of a store owner who opened a yogurt shop in downtown San Diego only to find that five other stores were opening within months of his, one of them a very successful franchise with a huge following? Wouldn’t this make you sort of wonder why on earth this store owner would do that, I mean open a store without doing the proper research? Then why on earth would you launch head first into publishing without knowing your market – I mean the publishing market? So many authors learn the ropes after their book is out, and by then it’s too late. Well, not too late really because you still have a book, but late in the sense that you can’t really do anything about mistakes made and the money it’s gonna cost you. There are a ton of online resources out there. Get to know them. I’ve listed a number of them in this article and there are more, many more. The Internet is abundant with free content. Use it.

Measuring Their Success in Book Sales

Many of you might be shaking your head wondering how I could possibly say this, but it’s true. Book sales, even in the best of economic climates, are sketchy and planning your success or failure around them is a very bad way to market your book. Here’s the reality: exposure = awareness = sales. The more exposure you get, the more awareness there is for the book, the more sales you may get. But this equation takes time and in the midst of this marketing many other really great non-book-sale-related things may happen. An example of this is an author who didn’t really sell a lot of her books as she was marketing, but found that her speaking gigs started to pick up. Each speaking gig netted her about fifty book sales, and because of the market she was in, many of those book sales turned into individual consulting gigs that brought in much more revenue than a single book sale ever could have. Get the picture?

The other reason I say this is because book sales can be tough to calculate, many reporting agencies don’t report sales for three to six months. I know this sounds crazy but it’s part of the reason why publishing is such a tricky business. So, if you’re doing a huge push in December and you look at your statement in January and find that you’ve only sold 3 books, it might be because you’re looking at sales figures from September or October when you weren’t doing any marketing at all.

Still not convinced? Then let me share my own story with you. As of today, Red Hot Internet Publicity has been out since July of 2009. I suspect to date it’s sold 5,000 or fewer copies. Not impressive, is it? Does that number bother me? Not at all. Want to know why? Because out of the copies sold I have probably brought twenty to thirty new authors on board who will likely be authors for life. Also, I got a teaching gig at NYU because someone handed someone at NYU this book and all of a sudden – there you have it. So if I measured my success by book sales, you bet I’d be depressed. Thank God I don’t. Book sales aren’t what drive my success. The same should be true for you. Start measuring your success in other ways and book sales will come. I promise.

We may not like how the corporate publishing model works, we may find fault with it, but to understand it is to understand how the industry works. For example, knowing the publishing seasons and why Fall is the biggest time for New York publishers to launch a book and perhaps the worst time for you to send your book to market if you’ve self-published.

Also, know that corporate publishers don’t publish to niches, or rarely do, so if you’re publishing to a niche, you may have a real leg up.

As for bookstores, the big six in New York pretty much own most of the shelf space in your local Barnes & Noble, so if you’re vying to get in there, you are going to have to do more than show up with a book in hand and a winning smile. You’re going to have to promote yourself to that local market and gain enough interest for your book that people start asking for it in bookstores.

Understanding the corporate publishing model means knowing and researching your industry and again, not just the industry you are writing for, but the market of publishing in general. Knowing what’s selling, what’s not – who’s buying, who’s closing their doors. Knowledge is power. Arm yourself with it and you’ll have a much more successful campaign.

Playing the Blame Game

If something goes wrong, own it. Unless it’s really not your fault, unless you were taken for a ride somehow, swindled or whatever. Own it. Take responsibility. Here’s an example. Recently an author came up to me after a class I taught and said she’d pitched 200 bloggers and only 5 of them wanted her book. What was wrong with them? Well, maybe it wasn’t the bloggers at all. Bloggers are busy, busier than they’ve ever been so your pitch has to be strong and your book exactly right for the blogger you are pitching. If you’re not getting a lot of pick up on your pitch you might need a new pitch and/or you might need a new set of bloggers. Don’t assume it’s someone else’s fault. Investigate what happened and take a critical look at the results. If you don’t feel you can be objective, hire someone to sift through the data. Assuming success eluded you because of someone else’s lack of interest or follow through might be undermining your campaign and you could be missing out on important data that could really help turn your campaign around.

Believing in the Unbelievable

There are no guarantees. No one can promise book sales, fame, or Oprah. Period. End of story. If someone is promising you these things, run, or if the offer seems too good to be true it likely is. If all else fails ask someone you trust. I get folks asking me all the time about campaigns, programs, and marketing opportunities. Feel free to do the same. Whether you are working with us or not, now or in the future, I will always give you a fair and honest answer. If you’d rather go to someone else, great – but find someone whose opinion you trust and ask before signing on the dotted line.

Success is not about hard work alone, it’s also about making smart, savvy choices and not being blinded by your own ambition, creativity, or ego such that it undermines your work. To be successful you need to be relentless, believe in your work and your mission but you also need to be objective, realistic, and humble. That is a successful mix for any author and in the end, isn’t really about getting the book out there? Focus on what matters. Good luck!

About a week ago, I shared an experience I had with a company who reposted an article I wrote without credit or permission. You can see that post here: http://www.amarketingexpert.com/someone-steals-stuff/
If you click on the article in question, you’ll see that the article is gone. I wanted to share what transpired after I reported them. GoDaddy wrote me for additional information, which I provided, and within 48 hours they wrote me back with this note:

Within an hour, the website owner who I’d been dealing with wrote me. He said he was surprised I’d taken this action and he cc’d GoDaddy on this correspondence. I reminded him of our correspondence and told him that in order to repost someone’s work you must credit them appropriately and contact them to ask permission.
So the website was down for a while, not sure how long, but I think at least a day. Now when you click the link it shows this:

Hazel Longuet submitted The Ultimate Social Media Resources List posted at A Novel Experience, saying, “It can be confusing navigating the ever changing tide of social media channels. I’ve spent the last 2 years gathering the very best advice on social media, from some of the industry’s titans. It’s a great resource to guide me when I’m baffled, lacking inspiration or just in need of a tip or two. Today I’m going to share this resource with you…”

Book Marketing

Sarah Bolme submitted A Cautionary Tale posted at Marketing Christian Books, saying, “Humans are tactile beings. We have five senses: hearing, smelling, seeing, tasting, and touching. Good marketers know that one key to reaching people is to engage more than just one of the five human senses with your message.”

That concludes this week’s carnival. Our weekly roundup offers the best book marketing, self-publishing, writing, and general publishing industry tips to guide authors, would-be authors, publishers and others on their book journey. Submit a post to our weekly carnival by using this link: http://www.amarketingexpert.com/submit-ame-blog-carnival/

Get some useful tips from these book marketing and publishing industry tweets to guide you, courtesy of bloggers, marketers, authors and others. The topics include planning a successful book event, setting writing goals, dealing with plagiarized articles, and more. Happy marketing!

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* 5 Ways to Sell More Books on Amazon

These tips include ideas you may not have tried – such as having buyers of your book on Amazon buy books in the same basket. Here’s why that works:

Hazel Longuet submitted 3 Simple Things You Can Do Today to Improve Your Blog posted at Novel Experience, saying, “There are 3 things I see time and time again on author blogs that take their hard earned readers away from their blogs, limit their social share potential and reduce the efficiency of their book links. The fixes are simple so give them a go.”

That concludes this week’s carnival. Our weekly roundup offers the best book marketing, self-publishing, writing, and general publishing industry tips to guide authors, would-be authors, publishers and others on their book journey. Submit a post to our weekly carnival by using this link: http://www.amarketingexpert.com/submit-ame-blog-carnival/

Here’s a look at some useful book marketing and publishing industry tweets to guide you, courtesy of bloggers, marketers, authors and others. The topics include how to get reviews, the importance of a great author headshot, an indie author guide to Twitter, and more. Happy marketing!

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* 39 Ways to Get More Social Media Followers

Flummoxed by the idea of getting more followers? These steps will help you as long as you apply them consistently:

Get informed and inspired with these book marketing and publishing industry tweets to guide you, courtesy of bloggers, marketers, authors and others. The topics include Twitter tips for better social media content, how to make your book marketing easier, handling missing or rejected Amazon reviews, and more. Happy marketing!

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* How to Handle Missing or Rejected Reviews on Amazon

One author found her Amazon reviews when missing, and she contacted the etailer to learn why. She also has advice for other authors should this happen to them:

If you want an active presence on social media, but scramble for content, then this post is for you. Learn how to create a content calendar that will allow you to post regularly and still have time to write your books:

Success Stories

"Penny Sansevieri is the Queen of book marketing. That's for sure. In working to promote my past books, her services were indispensable, allowing me to broaden my platform in social media and in traditional book publicity, the net result being more book sales and an expanded fan base.Just pick up any one her nine books and you'll be blown away by the breadth of her knowledge about every aspect of the book business. Whether it's Internet publicity, a blog tour, print-on-demand, media pitching, or booking speaking events, she can do it all, and faster than anyone else I know. Not least important, Penny is entirely focused, giving each client her full focus. Her warmth and contacts combined make her the ideal partner for any book enterprise."